Posts by Megan Wegan

You CAN protect yourself. The Crimes Act specifically allows it. Teach our daughters to defend themselves…permission to go into beserker mode if threatened. Pull out every weapon at their disposal. Teach our daughters that they are in control, teach them to be stroppy and staunch.

So, if you don't do those things/aren't stroppy and staunch...what then?

A really nice example of my earlier point? My flatmate will pause things, or tell me it's time to go and make a cup of tea, any time there's a scene in a movie or TV that I might not want to watch. She's my real life trigger warning.

To add to your list: Be a safe space. Let people know that you're safe. Don't touch them if they don't want it. Don't expect them to be OK when they're not. Don't assign blame. Don't offer retribution. It takes a lot for some people to feel safe, and it means a huge amount when they do.

Let me put this for you even more plainly. Women are clamouring to tell you about the violence they receive, every day, at the hands of men. The violence comes in words, in fists, in stalking, in being slammed against a wall so hard your teeth crack. It comes in psychological violence, in the headlines in articles blaming women for being attacked. It comes when we are girls, and when we are old women. And from Men Like You. It's not about guns. So shut up and listen.

Not to derail, but, just this once could the conversation be, you know, ABOUT US? Women are clamouring to tell you that this is stuff we deal with daily, constantly, through our whole lives. And it's really hard to do that when we're a "contributing factor".